Russia, China seek to deepen space projects

April 11, 16:47UTC+3MOSCOWCooperation between countries would probably be similar to that with the European side of the ExoMars mission, a Mars exploration project of the European Space Agency in collaboration with Roscosmos

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A Russian Rocket getting ready to take an Asian satellite into space (archive)

MOSCOW, April 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia and China are negotiating scope for large-scale joint space projects, Russian Federal Space Agency deputy head Sergey Saveliev told a teleconference at ITAR-TASS ahead of Cosmonautics Day marked in Russia on April 12.

The Roscosmos official said on Friday that Russian-Chinese co-operation was currently confined to China purchasing space technology items from Russia. “Last year, we agreed with our Chinese counterparts to discuss possibilities for broader co-operation, which means implementing one, two or three scientific projects,” he said. “We are working on these proposals at the moment.”

Saveliev noted growing willingness among Chinese partners to co-operate. Interaction would probably be similar to that with the European side of the ExoMars mission, a Mars exploration project of the European Space Agency in collaboration with Roscosmos.